Convergence space: process geographies of grassroots globalization networks

This paper considers grassroots globalization networks, which comprise a diversity of social movements working in association to engage in multi-scalar political action. Drawing upon David Harvey's notion of militant particularism (regarding the problems of effecting politics between different geographical scales), and recent research on networks and their relationship to places, the paper analyses People's Global Action, an international network of social movements opposing neoliberal globalization. From an analysis of the process geographies of People's Global Action, the paper proposes the notion of convergence space as a conceptual tool by which to understand and critique grassroots globalization networks. The paper argues that contested social relations emerge in such convergence spaces and considers the implications of these for theorizing such networks, and for political action.     

Articulating Climate Justice in Copenhagen: Antagonism,the Commons,and Solidarity

Abstract: Articulations of climate justice were central to the diverse mobilisations that opposed the Copenhagen Climate Talks in December 2009. This paper contends that articulations of climate justice pointed to the emergence of three co‐constitutive logics: antagonism, the common(s), and solidarity. Firstly, we argue that climate justice involves an antagonistic framing of climate politics that breaks with attempts to construct climate change as a “post‐political” issue. Secondly, we suggest that climate justice involves the formation of pre‐figurative political activity, expressed through acts of commoning. Thirdly, we contend that climate justice politics generates solidarities between differently located struggles and these solidarities have the potential to shift the terms of debate on climate change. Bringing these logics into conversation can develop the significance of climate justice for political practice and strategy. We conclude by considering what is at stake in different articulations of climate justice and tensions in emerging forms of climate politics.     

Sensuous Solidarities: Emotion,Politics and Performance in the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the political performance of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) during the protests against the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005. In particular, the paper is concerned with how emotional experiences within political moments or events can be constituted through performances that fashion “sensuous solidarities”. Sensuous solidarities are generated through diverse bodily movements and techniques, and are indicative of both the performative character of activist subjectivities and the content of activists’ public (political) performances. Reflecting on my participation in CIRCA, this paper will argue that sensuous solidarities constituted a series of complex, contradictory and emotive co‐performances and resonances with police, other protestors and the public and in doing so will consider the efficacy of those forms of activism that Duncombe (2007, Dream: Reimagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy. London: The New Press) has termed “ethical spectacles”.     

Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Variability of Bone Collagen to Determine the Number of Isotopically Distinct Specimens

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Archaeological and palaeontological excavations frequently produce large quantities of highly fragmentary bone. These bones can help to answer...     

Minutes of Meeting

Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt. By W. M. Flinders Petrie. Methuen &; Co., London, 1898. By A. H. Sayce.

A History o China, from the Earliest Days Down to the resent. By Rev. J. Macgowan, London Missionary Society. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, &; Co., 1897.

Le Folklore de l'Ile de Kythnos. Conférence donnée a la Société Royale Belge de Géographie le II Novembre, 1897. Par Henri Hauttec?ur. Bruzelles: Havermans, 1898.

L'Ile de Siphnos. Henri Hauttecojur. Bruxelles: Soc. Gén. d'Imprimerie, 1898.

Bergische Sagen. Gesammelt und mit Anmerkungen Herausgegeben. Von Otto Schell. Elberfeld, 1897. Baedekersche Buchdruckerei.

Antiker Aberglaube. Wilhelm Kroll. Hamburg: Richter, 1897.

Zur Albanesischen Volkskunde. Von Dr. Holger Pedersen. Kopenhagen: Siegfried Michaelsen's Nachfolger, 1898.

Weather Lore: a Collection of Proverbs, Sayings, and Rules Concerning the Weather, compiled and arranged by Richard Inwards, F.R.A.S. 3rd. ed., revised and augmented. London: Elliot Stock, 1898.

Deutsche Kinderreime und Verwandtes. Gesamuelt von Friedrich Drosihn. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1897.

Die Sage vom Heiligen Gral, in ihrer Entwicklung bis auf Richard Wagner's Parsifal. Von Eduard Wechssler, Privat-dozent der Romanischen Philologie an der Univ. Halle-Wittenburg. Halle, Max Niemeyer, 1898. By Jessie L. Weston.

Whilst thoroughly concurring in Miss Weston's criticism, I may be allowed to point out that as regards the most perplexing incident of the Grail legend, the question omitted by Perceval at his first visit to the Fisher King, an incident unexplained by every other student of the legend, Dr. Wechssler approves my suggestion. His words are: "Nutt schlagt eine Erklarung vor, die ich tiberans wahrschelnlich finde." What was my suggestion ? That the incident is traceable back to the geasa or taboos of early Irish saga; that it survived on into the mediaeval Arthurian romance, that it was completely misunderstood by the French adapters of the earlier Celtic stories, and that to this misunderstanding is due the obscure and Inconsistent way in which it Is presented by them. The suggestion involves, of course, the existence of a Perceval story innocent of all Christian admixture, based upon themes and conventions familiar in Irish romantic legends of the pre-eleventh century; yet although Dr. Wechssler approves the suggestion, he, as I understand him, rejects what It logically involves, and without which It has no claim to consideration. This is an even more striking instance than those adduced by Miss Weston of the author's inability to see the drift of his own statements and to follow up an argument to its logical conclusion. By Alfred Nutt.     

'Selling the rain', resisting the sale: Resistant identities and the conflict over tourism in Goa

This paper discusses the development of Goa as a tourist site within India and examines the economic, cultural and environmental impacts of such tourism development upon Goan communities. In so doing, the paper argues that while Goa has become a dispensable space for the exigencies of contemporary tourist development it has also engendered various forms of resistance to this process. The paper utilizes Manuel Castells' notion of 'resistance identity' and David Harvey's notion of 'militant particularism' to interpret some of these resistances. In Goa, these have taken the form of 'active minorities' whose most immediate source of self-recognition and autonomous organization is their locality: resistance is practised, at least in part, as a defensive articulation of identity to protect collective resources.     

Correction to: Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Variability of Bone Collagen to Determine the Number of Isotopically Distinct Specimens

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory -     

Engendering Gramsci: Gender,the Philosophy of Praxis,and Spaces of Encounter in the Climate Caravan,Bangladesh

This paper examines the gendered politics of national and international networking amongst peasant farmers' movements in South Asia. In particular the paper provides an ethnographic account, based upon the author's critical engagement with the Bangladesh Krishok (farmer) Federation and the Bangladesh Kishani Sabha (Women Farmers' Association), of the Climate Change, Gender and Food Sovereignty Caravan that was organised in Bangladesh in 2011. The paper draws upon Antonio Gramsci's theory of the philosophy of praxis and feminist research on social reproduction, dispossession and materiality to interrogate the spaces of encounter and solidarity‐building practices of the Caravan between different communities in the country and between different social movement actors. The paper examines how processes of political organisation and consciousness‐raising within and between social movements are problematised by gendered power relations. The paper concludes with suggestions concerning how the philosophy of praxis in Bangladesh might be “engendered” to incorporate a politics of social reproduction.